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Both of our ex & current Prime Minister already voiced their views regarding this matter. Yesterday, our ex-PM said Government should SELL MAS if it can be run more effectively by private sector. Meanwhile, when asked, our current PM said there was no plan to privatize MAS now because it was on track to its turn around plan under the helm of new management. So? In fact, this was like a million ringgit question for many speculative investors. Maybe, they or YOU were hoping for the deal to materialize if you bought the shares just recently. Anyway, it won't be as easy as you might think. MAS is a national carrier . It carries the national flag wherever it goes. (Some more, national day is approaching now) How much to privatized? Especially for a still loss-making company... Definitely, Government won't get much if MAS being privatized now. However, everything is possible given the facts below: National company is just a company anyway. We have just witnessed the privatizati...

Ever since the property boom started in 2009, right after the global financial crisis, investors were laughing to the bank. But, can these sustain until next year? Many analysts doubt so. Why? The most crucial determining factors might uncover itself in the next few months, approaching year end. In short, we have summed out to the below 3 critical factors: Banning of DIBS This is not a secret anymore. Speculation rife up recently, saying that BNM may ban the Developer Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS) by year end. BNM is studying the implications of DIBS which benefiting speculators more than serious buyers. Note: Singapore already banned such scheme few years back. Interest Rate hike BNM also may revised the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR), which determine the cost of financing in the country including Base Lending Rate (BLR) for mortgage loan. A 25 basis points hike was expected. This will affect all type of loans, except fixed interest loans. Let's get prepare for higher monthly loan ...

Just when the whole world coming for a rout, only US treasury yields shoot up to multi-months high. Investors might wondering why this happen. Some of our readers are posting these kind of question to us. We think this article might helps. US Treasury = US Government Bond Actually, we are referring to US Government 10 Years Bond. Generally, a government bond is issued by a national government (in this case US) and is denominated in the country's own currency (USD). Bonds issued by national government in foreign currencies are normally referred to as sovereign bonds. The yield required by investors to loan funds to governments reflects inflation expectations and the likelihood that the debt will be repaid. Also, government bonds were usually referred to as risk-free bonds , because governments could easily devalue their currencies or raise taxes to redeem the bond at maturity.  The Story of US Treasury Yields... Just like Base-Lending-Rate (BLR) for Malaysia, everything from mortgag...

I am writing this post during midnight after I came across a report saying that Bank Islam chief economist suspended after predicting that opposition will win the upcoming election. As usual, Finance Malaysia would NOT include political elements in its blog post. And, we would like to stress here again, that we are discussing this topic WITHOUT any political elements. Then, what are we talking here? FREEDOM of VOICE & OPINION I knew that I could not sleep if I didn't speak up for En. Azrul Anwar. We are not here to defend anyone, neither to offend any parties. But, we should open up our mind, and accept other opinions with open heart. In this matter, the said bank is losing its credibility and reputation by suspending one of its key staff --- just because of his prediction. Why can't he speak freely? Will the bank lose its banking license because of this? Does he answer the question wrongly? NO... It's a prediction only, there is no right or wrong here. Everyone knew t...

Below is the 10 key achievements highlighted by CEO of Pemandu, that demonstrates the positive inroads of the ETP: Projects will be implemented within the 12 focused National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) and also implement 51 Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRI) to ensure competitiveness will flourish. Whilst Malaysia's GNI per capita was only US$6,700 in 2009, it grew dramatically by 45% in 2011. (Target is US$15,000 by 2020) GDP grew by 5.3% year-to-date. This is significant, considering Singapore's growth of only 1.3% while neighboring countries recorded the following GDP growth: Thailand 3.0% South Korea 1.6% Taiwan 1.0% Hong Kong 1.3% Economy continues to grow to reach new GDP and GNI records in 2011, with Government achieved its highest revenue in history with RM185 billion in 2011, allowing the Government to implement many programmes, including those under GTP such as BRIM1 and BRIM2. Private investment continues to achieve robust growth. As of Sept 2012, private inv...

When everyone thought that US and the world will be better if Obama won his presidential re-election again, world equities markets today declines with US being the most serious market by dropping more than 2%. What's the reason? Answer: Fiscal Cliff  ? Hmmm... Then, what is fiscal cliff actually which many of us on the street do not even heard about this new term before. No worry, Finance Malaysia blog did his homework over here. Share this out if you like. Understanding Fiscal Cliff... The US fiscal cliff refers to the effect of a series of enacted legislation which, if unchanged, will result in tax increases, spending cuts, and a corresponding reduction in the budget deficit. With Obama retaining the presidency, it sends the signal that it's US government policies will pretty much stay the same as previous 4 years. Ben Bernanke will stay as Fed chairman, which also meaning that the open-ended liquidity and bond buying programs will continue, fueling risk taking appetite of e...

General election is around the corner. External environment was not so promising, following the no ending of European debt crisis, world economic slowdown, and recent tension between China and Japan. I believe all of these would be some key factors being taking into consideration to formulate the Malaysia Budget 2013. Goodies? Bonus? Cash handout? Themed as " Prospering The Nation, Enhancing Well-Being of the Rakyat: A Promise Fulfilled ". Our prime minister, who is also Finance Minister, tabled the 2013 Budget at Dewan Rakyat yesterday. Over here, Finance Malaysia blog would only touches on some key points: Economic growth projected to expand between 4.5% - 5.5% Federal Government's revenue in 2013 is estimated to increase to RM208.6 billion Continuation of BR1M of RM500 to households earning not more than RM3,000 a month and also extended the aid to cover a payment of RM250 for single unmarried individuals aged 21 and above, earnings not more than RM2,000 a month RM 1...

First of all, Happy Merdeka to all Malaysians. Yup, we love peace and prosperity as mentioned by our beloved prime minister. 55th years of independence would not come true without unity of people from various races. No doubt, we Malaysians are from various background. Yet, we have come together, good or bad, to shape our nation until what we already achieve today. Anyway, Finance Malaysia hopes our nation can transform itself by realizing the 2020 vision "Developed Nation". Just when everyone was celebrating today, I came across one news titled " Mat Rempit to help fight crime " and my writing instinct once again being activated. Fighting crime by collaborating with Mat Rempit? This is the first reaction I believed many readers would asked!!! Don't we know that Mat Rempit were those who rides their motorcycle dangerously? Don't we know that Mat Rempit were those riders that endangered the life of other road users? And, I really don't know how and why our...

Continue from previous post on "New Minimum Wage Policy", here we analyze the impact from an economics perspective. Many people said the new policy will jack-up the inflation figures due to higher production costs. Subsequently, it will dampen the GDP growth numbers. Is it true? The impact on inflation and GDP growth is ambiguous . Setting a minimum wage would boost wages and consumption for workers who remain employed (likely to be the more productive workers, working in companies that have higher profit margin), but would hurt the profitability of businesses that are labor intensive and could potentially lead to higher unemployment rate . The impact on growth will likely be a net negative in the short-run as it might result in raised cost without an increase in productivity. In the long-run, this policy may bring about a positive impact if it succeeds in encouraging workers to upgrade their skills or for companies to invest more capital to...

Malaysia Prime Minister promised that there will be an important announcement on 1 May 2012 ( Labor Day ). Without much thought, it's very obvious that it was closely related to " Minimum Wage Policy " which already echoed by Government to win the heart of public. However, it receives much objections from private sectors, especially small-and-medium enterprises (SME) claiming that the new policy would impact on their balance sheets drastically. Really? Impact of a minimum wage policy As pressure mounts on the government to ensure that private sector workers in Malaysia earn salaries above the poverty level of RM760, Malaysia could set the minimum wage at RM900 for Peninsular Malaysia and RM800 for East Malaysia. According to World Bank, Malaysia's wages have risen by a CAGR of 2.6% over the past 10 years, while inflation has risen at a higher pace of 3.0-3.5%. Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia Who is the BIG winner? The new policy would benefit some 3.2mill...

Once again, PTPTN (Malaysia National Higher Education Loan) came to the limelight lately with the wrong reasons. In conjunction with this, Finance Malaysia did a survey on Facebook Page asking our fans "Should Government Abolish PTPTN Loans?", and guess the answer given by majority of them? NO . Emmm... What does this mean? It's pretty clear that majority of us thinks that PTPTN should be continue for the following reasons: There is no FREE lunch in this world Borrowers should repay what he borrows The scheme did already help many financially distressed students pursuing tertiary education Thanks for your participation in the survey. Yet, many readers keep asking Finance Malaysia, our view on this matter. Before answering you, we also highlighted that this blog is of freedom of speech, we're not political driven blog, and we tend to be political-neutral in writing. Below is our view on this issue: We agreed that there is no free lunch, especially in Malaysia. We shou...

It's becoming confusing for many people, especially outsiders (non-Malaysian), as to the role of Government to Malaysian corporate. And, it had been more confusing when Government dishes out lots of Goodies to certain groups of people (as long as they are eligible voters) citing to help bring down the burden of Rakyat . Good reason though. However, many of us know that this may short-lived just because of the coming general election. Anyway, this is part of the political gimmick usually played around the world. Nothing's wrong. One end, our Government targeted to bring down the deficit numbers by cutting subsidies like Petrol prices. But on the other end, it dishing our cash just like what announced during Budget 2012, citing Government had made encouraging improvements in collecting taxes. Then, why not bring down the budget deficit of the country first? Does few hundred ringgits really make huge different for people? A BAD example set by JCorp? The latest movements by Governm...

Heard about 1Care Malaysia healthcare plan? If no, then you must read this article thoroughly word by word. Because the the proposed healthcare system will drastically change the way we seek for treatment in the future. The main issue was " Is it viable to implement 1Care? ". Well, the intention is good for our community. The plan had a very beautiful definition as below: But... Concern is always there whenever Government want to implement something and that thing is managed solely by Government. Experience? Got (bad experience). Money? Got, but already drained somewhere (normally). You can't prevent Malaysians from worrying, especially when 1Care touches each and everyone of us for life. What are the concerns? Each person in different sector have different risk level . How to determine the amount of contributions of each contributor? Subsequently, how to determine the benefits package each individual entitled to? If the benefits was based on the amount of contribution...

In 2008, we have seen the catastrophic effect from the subprime mortgage loan in US. Even now, US is still struggling to fully recover from their worst financial crisis since Great Depression. The problems doesn't build in one day, in fact, it took years to snowball the problem. And, yet Malaysia seems like wanting to catch up with them by supporting the subprime loan. But, the unique part of our version is " using EPF monies "? When news first broke out last month that EPF would be channelling RM1.5bil for a special public housing scheme, alarm bells sounded off for many contributors. Maybe EPF already knew the result for last year performance, it announced later that contributors are getting a decade-high dividend rate of 6%. Salute to EPF. Since EPF are doing so good even without the said "loan", then, why EPF have to take the risk to loan out to this scheme? Afterthat, EPF published a statement claiming that the money is loaned to the Government, not to ind...

Lately, there was a slew of divestment by Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Investment arm of Malaysia Government). And, the most recent one was the divestment of Proton stakes to DRB-Hicom. But, the strange part was DRB-Hicom was the winning bidder for Khazanah's stake in POS Malaysia last year too. Questions have been pouring in to Finance Malaysia regarding this issue, such as, are there any linkages between the two national deals? Other than DRB-Hicom, there was none other better suitors? As such, we would like to give our opinion on this matter. (Just for your reading pleasure) You have the Questions, We have the Answers First, both POS and Proton were considered as " sunset " companies in their respective industry. Both were not managed well and fallen from their glamorous days. Just as many investors written them off from investment radar, DRB-Hicom comes into the picture. Frankly speaking, the only asset both companies have was Government's backing. While POS has the mo...